On the move

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With sunshine, fresh air and cool grass underfoot, checking
email has never been so liberating. Go wireless and you, too, could
be online from a favourite park. It might even work better
there.

Sitting here in a shady spot, this internet connection is a
revelation. The iBurst card in my laptop has a steady green light,
indicating a much better signal than achievable at home.

iBurst is just one
of the wireless internet services available in Sydney. Wireless
services can unshackle us from dial-up, and they provide an
alternative for those who can't get, or don't want, fixed-line
broadband such as ADSL or cable.

With a PCMCIA laptop card (complete with little antenna), iBurst
is a highly portable solution. Notebook users in its coverage zones
have the freedom to connect from work, home or even public
transport - in fact almost anywhere (except, perhaps, my lounge
room).

It's a little like using a wireless hotspot, but without having
to find the cafe or airport lounge. And without having to buy
internet access in small, expensive slices.

Other wireless internet services don't enjoy such untethered
mobility. The easy-to-use Unwired, for example, uses an
external modem. While there's a secure wireless connection between
its antenna and the ISP, the modem itself is physically connected
to a computer via an ethernet or USB lead. It also has to be
plugged into the power supply (unless you pay extra for a battery
pack).

Another service, Big
Air, is not portable at all, but claims one of the fastest
residential broadband services. Using a modest rooftop antenna, Big
Air connects entire apartment buildings. It requires only five
interested tenants in a block of 80 flats to get started. A
technician will have a look at the rooftop first, to see if there's
a line-of-sight to a transmitter (if you have views of the city or
North Sydney you could be in luck).

Most wireless broadband services offer speeds up to 1Mbps.
However, for budget-minded customers, lower-end packages are often
enough to replace a dial-up connection.

"I wanted to get rid of the landline and I thought Unwired might
be a bit faster," says Ben Maclaine, a voice-over artist who's been
using Unwired for three months from his Darlinghurst home.

"I notice it is quicker for downloads, although I'm on the
lowest plan and about two-thirds of the way through the month the
service reverts back to dial-up speed [when he exceeds the data
limit]. But that's OK," Maclaine says.

Part of the appeal of Unwired and iBurst is that customers don't
have to wait for a provider to connect them. And installation can't
get much easier than simply plugging in a modem. The tricky part,
if any, is finding a good spot to get the best reception.

"My brother has Unwired too and he had to get an extension lead
so that he could position the modem in his bedroom and use his
laptop in the lounge room," says Maclaine, who nearly returned his
own modem after a rocky start.

"Initially it was really annoying because I could never get a
connection. A few times I called the help desk and staff would say,
'just move the modem around a bit'. Eventually they sent me another
modem and it works much better," he says. "Now it's a fairly
consistent service, although occasionally it will drop out."

Wireless wannabes can check the online maps published on service
provider websites to see if there's coverage in their areas (or if
coverage is on the way). If you have a friend with the service,
consider inviting them (and their modem) over to find where you'll
get the best reception.

Contenders

Unwired

Rating: * * * *

Price: $34.95 to $119.95 a month, $189 for the modem and $200
set-up (waived on 12-month contracts).

Unwired is the quick, easy, low-fuss way to ditch the dial-up
and get something faster - either 256Kbps, 512Kbps or 1024Kbps -
and with the "always-on" availability we demand of broadband. It is
ideal for those who rent, or who simply don't want cabling. While
it's not particularly portable, it can be plonked in a backpack and
used in different locations. For best results, experiment with its
position in a room (next to a desk phone is not ideal because the
modem can create a nasty buzz). Tasks such as browsing,
downloading, even running Windows updates, are quick and painless.
However, there can be momentary delays and the occasional loss of
reception. Whoops! Can't reach the email server? Try again and all
mail is downloaded in a snap.

iBurst

Rating: * * * ½

Price: Varies among resellers - most offer
plans from about $70 a month, and PCMCIA cards (for laptops) cost
about $400.

One could use a PC bridge or modem to connect a desktop computer
to iBurst, but the strength of this service is in its mobility,
giving laptop users the chance to connect almost anywhere in the
metropolitan area. (Working from McDonald's after forgetting the
office keys provided just such an opportunity.) Given good
reception, iBurst is gloriously fast. Icon tested a 1Mbps service
from Independent Service Providers (www.isp.net.au), which is one
of several resellers. Signal strength can, however, vary within
different buildings and connection failed occasionally during
review, depending on location.

The verdict

Choose a good spot for the modem and Unwired provides an easy,
consistent, value-for-money service for connecting the family
desktop computer. However, laptop users will ultimately want the
freedom offered by iBurst.

BlackBerry overview

If all you really need on the move is access to your email, why
cart a laptop about? And why juggle phones and PDAs? The BlackBerry
devices don't look pretty, but then they're covering a lot of
bases. For once, phone calls, email and text messages all arrive in
a single, useful place. BlackBerry was designed mainly for
corporations where IT staff manage the necessary gateways. However,
Vodafone offers a no
frills service for individuals and small businesses. Be warned, it
is absolutely vital to set up mail filtering because the server
will keep copies of everything from your inbox. And it's no fun
downloading hundreds of spam emails on a pocket-sized device.

How to find the hotspots

Fancy a cuppa? How about a small serve of internet access? Some
laptop users will need a WiFi PCMCIA card to connect to hotspots.
Others will have WiFi (802.11b or 802.11g) support already built in
to their machines. Wireless hotspots can be found in hotels,
airport lounges and coffee shops such as Starbucks and Gloria
Jeans. You could look up directories provided by vendors such as iPrimus,
or find free hotspots provided by Public Networks Australia. The
Taiwanese manufacturer Raytac has another solution. It lent Icon a
credit-card-sized Wi-Fi Finder (not available in Australia yet),
which lights up when a wireless network is nearby. Walking about
with this gadget was reminiscent of Star Trek, but it correctly
identified a bunch of public hotspots in the city centre.

Infofile

Speed test

ZDNet's Broadband
Speed Tester will measure how much data can be transferred over
your connection at a particular moment. You can compare the results
against speeds typically provided by dial-up and fixed-line
broadband. Leslie Long's Modem Speed Test
Page () and E-wire's
offer second opinions.